Chapter 21
Ian
We talk on the phone. Sync our digital calendars, which feels weirdly intimate.
Schedule the prenatal appointments through December, because her projected due date is right before the new year.
The first one is next week, but it can’t come fast enough.
I hate being away from her. She’s all I think about, whether I’m running logs through the splitter or staring at the ceiling waiting to fall asleep.
So the next time Julia is scheduled to work, I find myself at Dog-Eared Pages during story time, browsing the nonfiction and eavesdropping on Julia as she reads aloud to an audience of under-sixes.
I know they don’t have ears yet, but I like the idea that our pups are listening to her read, too.
“Can I help you find something?” the tight-ponytailed manager asks me, her lips drawn thin with a fake smile.
I suppress my huff of annoyance that she interrupted the story at the good part and fumble for an excuse to be loitering among the shelves near the children’s section. “Uh, yes. I’m looking for a baby-name book.”
“This is the astronomy section,” she says dryly, pointing at the sign above the shelves. She beckons me to follow her to another corner of the store, out of earshot of the reading area. The same area where she sold me the pregnancy book two days ago.
The manager runs her finger over a few of them to show me where they are on the shelf. The Geeky Orc’s Guide to Naming Offspring. The World’s 10,000 Best Baby Names. Name Your Whole Clutch in Five Easy Steps.
“Some sound species-specific, but don’t let the titles limit you. Browse for the one you click with, and then I can ring you up.”
Although I’m grumpy that she made me miss the end of story time, I have to admit that she’s being very helpful. “Thanks,” I say grudgingly, picking one up to flip through.
“Any time! Congrats on the new baby!” She pauses, a crafty look coming over her face. “If you don’t mind me asking, how do you know Julia?”
I’ve only witnessed a few interactions with this woman, and I already know she’s trouble. I’m not giving her any ammunition. “Oh, she helped me pick out some books to give as gifts a few weeks ago. Very helpful.”
Her disappointment is palpable, but she quickly covers it with a smile and chirps, “Cool. See you at the register!”
Wulvers and humans share a lot of naming traditions, so I pick up one of the human baby name books and flip through it. So many names jump out at me, sparking my imagination about what our pups will be like. A girl named Violet with silvery fur like Mam. A boy named Ezra with Julia’s brown eyes.
“Baby names, huh?” Julia asks behind me. When I turn to look at her, her eyes are crinkled with a smile. “Any firm ideas yet?”
I shake my head. “It won’t feel real until we know how many pups we’re having. It’s a different conversation depending on how many there are, you know? Like if there are four, we’ll need a much longer list of potentials if we’re going to find that many we agree on.”
“Well, we don’t have to agree on anything. They’re your pups.”
I wish she’d stop saying things like that. “They’re our pups. They share half your DNA. Half your family history. You want me to deny them that?”
“I don’t want to argue in the store,” she murmurs, her eyes on the floor.
Shit, of course not. And sure enough, the manager’s eyes are on us. What am I doing, rolling up to her workplace to hash out serious topics, like I’m entitled to her attention no matter what else she has going on? I’ve made a major blunder. “I’m sorry. I’ll go.”
To my surprise, she catches my arm. “Wait for me after work? I get off at five. You’re right, we do need to talk about this.”
I nod, relieved she’s not shutting me out after my huge overstep. “And you can tell me the ending.”
She raises her brows. “What?”
“The ending of the story you were reading. I missed it, and I want to know what happens.”
That earns me a smile. “Okay.”
I’m ready with our coffee drinks, hers decaf and soy-milky, when she shows up at Three Wishes a few minutes after her shift is over. She slides into the seat across from me and takes a long, grateful drink of the steaming beverage.
“So…” I start. “I owe you an apology. I was antsy to see you, so I came to the store. I should have waited until you were done with work and called ahead so it wasn’t an ambush. I’m just a little excited, and I wasn’t thinking. I’m really sorry if I caused any problems with your manager.”
She shakes her head, laughing. “It’s no big deal. She already hates me.”
“Nobody could hate you.”
“You’d be wrong about that one.” She wraps her hands around her coffee mug and stares at the foam swirls on top, gnawing on her bottom lip. “What you said about denying the pups my family history…”
“I’m sorry,” I interrupt, guilt clawing at my guts. “I shouldn’t have said that. It wasn’t the time or place.”
“Maybe not, but it’s true. It made me realize that I really swept that under the rug with my girls.
Richard didn’t want them to have ‘weird’ names.
He wouldn’t even consider giving them Korean middle names.
He said the babies would be Americans and should have American names.
I told him that I’m American even though I have both kinds of name, but he wouldn’t hear it.
I just assumed you wouldn’t want my input, either, especially since the pups will be growing up in a wulver family, and I’m basically just a surrogate. ”
“You’re not just—” I start, but her smile stops me.
“I know. That’s what I realized once you said that.
I’m not a third party. My thinking about this has been wrong.
I’m their mom, even though it’s not going to be a typical family structure.
I want them to have that connection even if I’m not raising them on a daily basis.
They’ll be curious about me. They’ll want to know my stories to make sense of what it means to be half-human.
My girls wanted to know their Korean side even though they didn’t get Korean names.
Where they live now, their American names are the ‘weird’ ones! ”
“I really hate that he didn’t want his daughters to have that piece of their birthright,” I mutter.
“He was doing what he thought was best for them, I’m sure,” she hedges. “Want to know a secret, though?”
I lean forward. I want to know everything about her. “Yes.”
“I gave them names anyway, even though they aren’t on the birth certificates. Samantha is Soo-Min and Molly is Eun-Min. I had lockets engraved when they were born, and those are the names they’re using at school, even though they’re technically nicknames.”
I grin at her little rebellion. “I love that. You must have a good relationship with them.”
She nods. “It’s hard having them so far away, but I’m so proud of them both. I wish you could meet them.”
I don’t point out that I can meet them whenever they’re in town. They might even want to know their half-siblings. She’s not ready to think that far ahead yet, though. “What do you think about giving our pups Korean names, too?” I ask instead. “Is that something you’d like to do?”
She nods shyly. “I was thinking middles, if that’s okay with you. I can make a list of names and you can pick from it, maybe?”
My tail thumps the bench seat. I like this. I like it a lot. “That sounds perfect. I’ll do the same for first names, and we can swap.”
“Okay.”
“Okay.”
We smile at each other like idiots for a long minute.
Julia shifts in her seat. “I should probably get home. Richard’s coming back from his work trip today, and I need to get the house ready.”
“Okay,” I say reflexively, even though a growl is winding up in my chest at the mention of my rival.
He’s not my rival. He already won her. I should want him to love and support her, to care for her when I can’t. But I don’t quite have the generous heart I should have in this situation. I should try harder on that front.
“I’m sure you’ll be glad to have him back,” I add, trying to get in the spirit.
Her eyes dart away, avoiding mine. “Um, yeah. He just likes things a certain way. I get a little sloppy about it when he’s gone, so I have to go clean up after myself so he doesn’t see my mess.”
That perks my ears, and not in a good way. “What happens if he sees?”
She shakes her head and blows out a breath. “Nothing. It’s not a big deal. Stuff I need to do anyway. But I should probably tell him about…you know.”
The pregnancy. “Yeah.”
“He doesn’t want to know details, but I don’t think this is a detail, do you?” She scrunches her nose. It’s so adorable, and I wish I could kiss her. “What do you think I should say?”
“I don’t know if I can help you with this,” I say carefully. She clearly walks on eggshells around this guy, and I don’t want to steer her wrong. But she’s also asking me for support, and I want to give her as much as I can, any way I can. “If you’d like, we can tell him together.”
Her eyes go wide and panicked as she clutches her coffee. “Nooo! You can’t, Ian. He won’t react well. The less he knows about you, the better.”
“Okay, okay!” I hold up my hands in surrender, even as my heart gives a sick thud. Who is she married to? “I’m not trying to get in a fistfight with the guy. I just…want to be by your side if you need me. If you need protection.”
She shoots me a half-smile, one corner of her mouth turned up. “I know. Thank you. I just don’t want to cause strife. Don’t worry about me, though. He’s not dangerous or anything.”
“He’s dangerous,” Ben says when he stops by my cabin the next day.
“What?” I shout, shutting off the splitter so I can hear him better. It sputters to a halt, coughs, and quits. Might be time for a tune up on the old beast.
“Richard Norman. He’s one-hundred-percent a bad dude.”
“You ran a background check on her husband?!” I yelp, appalled.
“On your mate,” he clarifies, like that’s better. “On them both, obviously. I needed to know what kind of people they are. Before you give me an ethics lecture, did you hear what I said? He’s involved in all kinds of shady shit.”
“So are you,” I point out, feeling slightly numb to what the background check revealed. Ben has always been overprotective of our family, but he really should have asked me before he did that.
His hackles go up, making him look even more menacing than usual.
“Not like this. Dude is in deep. Does business with mafia types. Keeps money offshore. Buys politicians so his deals can skirt local laws. He has a mistress all set up in a penthouse in Pittsburgh, too. Spends more time there than he does here. He’s not a good person in any aspect of his life, as far as I can tell.
He hangs out with dangerous people, too.
How did she get mixed up with this guy?”
“I think they met in college.” My fingertips start to tingle, and my ears ring.
It’s panic, I realize. Panic that Julia is tied to him, and there’s nothing I can change about it.
I suck in some deep breaths, and the feelings subside enough for me to croak, “What am I supposed to do? How can I keep her safe? She’s pregnant, Ben. ”
“Already?! Shit, you work fast,” he says with a tone of admiration.
I have to grin. “Yup. One and done, it’s the Lyall way.”
He fist-bumps me, laughing, but then his expression turns pensive.
“With pups involved, you should definitely let a Fate intervene. Claim your mating rights to keep her with you while she’s carrying.
If you had any qualms about upsetting her life, this is your sign not to.
He doesn’t deserve her. He’s a danger to her. Get her the fuck out,” he says grimly.
“What if she doesn’t want out?” That’s my biggest fear: that deep down, she loves her husband. That she tolerates his control and criticism—and maybe his criminality—because her heart belongs to him.
He hands me a large manila envelope. “Then you show her this file. There’s enough in here on Mr. Norman to put him in prison for life. All you have to do is drop it in the mail to the FBI, and he’s toast. If she wants him to stay out of jail, she’ll have to agree to whatever you ask of her.”
My tail tucks as I take in his meaning. “You think I should blackmail her?”
“I think you should do whatever it takes to keep your pups safe,” he says grimly, clapping me on the shoulder before striding past me toward the cabin. “You got any of those pies around here, brother? I’m starving.”